I’m an All-Clad gnome myself, but only because I’m able to pick stuff up steeply discounted at a store nearby. I have several of their springforms and would recommend. Springform is not necessary, but especially nice if you plan on making cheesecake and the like.

For cooking and bakeware I typically stick with the legacy names (All-Clad, Le Creuset, etc.) and buy the sales, outlets, scratch-n-dent, garage sales, second hand, etc. Estate sales are especially nice for this stuff.

Edit: I should say my former housemate had a cake business and I believe she used nordicware and uh, she made a fuck ton of cakes.